Banana Honey Nut Loaf

From Noble Pig

Topping
3/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
1/4 cup finely chopped walnuts
1 Tablespoon honey
Pinch of salt

Banana Loaf
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon baking soda
1/8 teaspoon ground nutmeg
2 large eggs
2/3 cup honey
1 teaspoon vanilla
2/3 cup vegetable oil
2 large over-ripe bananas, mashed
1/2 cup walnuts, chopped

First make the topping in a medium-sized bowl.  Blend together flour and butter with your fingertips.  Stir in nuts, honey and salt, then work mixture together with your hands to make crumbs (mixture will be moist).  Set aside.

In a large bowl, prepare banana loaf:  Whisk together flour, baking powder, salt, baking soda and nutmeg.  Make a well in the center of the dry ingredients.  In a medium-size bowl, whisk eggs, honey, oil, mashed banana and vanilla.  Pour into well in flour with walnuts on top.  Stir until mixture is just combined.

Coat a 9 x 5 x 3 loaf pan (make sure you are using the right size) with nonstick cooking spray and line it with parchment paper (if you do not line the pan with parchment you will lose a fair amount of your crumb topping when you have to dump the loaf out as opposed to being able to just lift it out with the parchment).  Coat the parchment with nonstick spray as well.

Transfer the batter to the prepared pan and sprinkle with the topping.  Place in a 350^o F oven for 55 minutes (for the first 40 minutes of baking, cover the loaf with a sheet of foil as honey browns very quickly).  If you lined the pan with parchment you can remove the loaf from the pan and place on a cooling rack as soon as you have removed it from the oven.  Otherwise, cool in the pan on a wire rack for 20 minutes before removing.


*Crumbly and crumbly, not as moist and sweet as other banana breads.

Focaccia Bread

*I loved this!  So good.  I almost ate it all myself.


From Toastmaster Bread Maker Guide
Makes 1 loaf

Ingredients:
1 cup water 80 degrees F
1/3 cup olive oil
2 t sugar
1 t salt
3 cups bread flour (or regular flour)
1 t bread machine yeast (or 1 t quick rise yeast or 1 1/2 t active dry yeast)

Program:  DOUGH

Add at the beep:
1 t dried Italian seasoning

Topping ideas:
olive oil
dried oregano
garlic, coarsely chopped
Parmesan cheese, grated
salt
onion
Feta cheese
olives

Method:
1.  With oiled hands, evenly press dough into a greased 9x13 inch pan.  Using your fingertips, make indentations in the dough.
2.  Cover and let rise in a warm place for 30 minutes or until almost double in size.  While the dough is rising, select the topping and prepare.
3.  In a skillet, heat olive oil (1/4 cup).  Add garlic, oregano, or onions (cook until soft, but not brown).  Remove from heat
4.  Use fingertips to press dimples into dough again.  Spoon topping mixture evenly over dough.  Sprinkle with remaining ingredients.
5.  Bake at 400 degrees F for 20 minutes or until done.

Eggnog

From Allrecipes

Ingredients:
3 eggs
1/2  of a 14 oz can sweetened condensed milk
1/2 t vanilla extract
2 cups milk
whipping cream (whipped, about 2 cups or to taste)
1 pinch ground nutmeg
1 pinch salt (optional)

Directions:
1.  Beat eggs; mix in condensed milk, vanilla, milk, and salt.
2.  Beat whipping cream until soft peaks form.  Fold into egg and milk mixture and sprinkle with nutmeg.  Serve chilled.

*My dad used to make eggnog at Christmas time when I was little; the store-bought kind just never seems right to me.  My 6 year old was asking for some yesterday so I thought we'd give this recipe a try.  It was better than the store kind, but not exactly like dad's.  Very rich.

Chocolate Swirls

From This Week for Dinner

Ingredients:

1/2 C sugar
1/2 C packed brown sugar
1/2 C butter, softened
3 oz cream cheese, softened

1 egg
1 t vanilla
2 C all purpose flour
1/2 t baking powder
1/4 t salt
1 C semisweet chocolate ships, melted and slightly cooled

Directions:

Heat oven to 350F. In large mixing bowl combine sugars, butter, cream cheese, egg and vanilla. Beat at medium speed of electric mixer until light and fluffy. Add flour, baking powder and salt. Beat at low speed until soft dough forms. Fold melted chips into dough until lightly marbled. (do not overmix)

Drop dough by heaping teaspoons 2 inches apart onto ungreased cookie sheets. Bake for 10-12 mins, or until edges are light golden brown. Cool completly before storing.

*This is one of the few cookies I've made that Jeff likes as much as Amber's Chocolate Chip Cookies.  Soft and tasty--melting the chocolate chips gives them a different kind of look.

Sour Cream Blueberry Muffins

Ready in 45 minutes or less
Recipe taken from a page in Quick Cooking

Ingredients:
2 cups biscuit/baking mix
3/4 cup sugar
2 eggs
1 cup (8 ounces) sour cream
1 cup fresh or frozen blueberries*
2 T sugar

Directions:
In a bowl, combine the biscuit mix and 3/4 cup sugar.  In another bowl, combine the eggs and sour cream; sitr into the dry ingredients just until combined.  Fold in the blueberries.  Fill greased muffin cups three-fourths full.  Sprinkle with the remaining sugar.

Bake at 375 degrees for 20-25 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.  Cool for 5 minutes before removing from pan to a wire rack.  Yield: 1 dozen.

*If using frozen blueberries, do not thaw before adding to the batter.

*I don't know if I can adequately rate these seeing how I only got 1 or 2 bites before they were gone!  Love the big berries.